Students and MassSpecpecD BV win the COAST Community Challenge Award 2018

During the two-day international conference Forum for Analytical Science and Technology (29-30 May 2018 in Veldhoven, the Netherlands) a group of six students and MassSpecpecD BV won the COAST Community Challenge Award 2018 for the `most significant and innovative research proposal aiming at solving a COAST participant's Analytical Challenge`.

The winning ("Sweaty") student team: from left Iris Groeneveld (MSc student University of Amsterdam / VU University and MSc+), Nienke van Dongen (MSc student Wageningen University & Research and MSc+), Fleur van Beek (PhD student in the MANIAC project at UvA), Ruben Kers (MSc student UvA/VU and MSc+), and Leon Niezen (MSc student UvA/VU); not present on the picture and 6th member of the winning student team is Rianne van Outersterp (MSc student UvA/VU and MSc+). In the middle Maurice Janssen (MassSpecpecD BV) and on the right Professor Peter Schoenmakers (University of Amsterdam), chairman of the FAST-2018 conference and board member of the public-private Analytical Science Consortium COAST (www.ti-coast.com).

As part of the COAST Challenge Award 2018, the student team will work the coming year on the implementation proposed by the winning students as a solution for the challenge submitted to the FAST-2018 competition by MassSpecpecD BV on 'how tohyphenate GC and LC with the MS-PECD chiral mass spectrometry technology'. The hyphenation-project aims to broaden the application area of the multi-component chiral MS technology that is currently under development by MassSpecpecD BV.

The FAST-2018 conference in Veldhoven focused on Analytical Science and Technology and the application areas in which this discipline plays a significant role. In various sessions, renowned experts from industry and academia shared their most recent results and accomplishments. The larger part of the program was based on abstracts submitted by industrial experts and young scientists from academia. Parallel lecture sessions were dedicated to specific application areas including Life Sciences, Chemistry, Energy, Materials, Food, Water, and High-Tech. The full 2-day program can be accessed here (Program FAST-2018) and the book of abstracts can be accessed here (Book-of-Abstracts-FAST-2018).

The FAST conference is the 2-day annual forum for all novel and innovative analytical science and technology that is performed by the COAST participants, regardless of whether this is done in the framework of a COAST project or not. The public-private Analytical Sciences consortium COASTaims to advance Dutch excellence in its top sectors by providing pivotal analytical knowledge and instruments based on fundamental science, and by ensuring transfer of analytical expertise between application areas. COAST aims to achieve this by securing and improving Dutch expertise in analytical science and technologies. Further information on the public-private consortium COAST can be found here: www.ti-coast-com.

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